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The Hash Brown Omelet

Sometimes I get an idea and it haunts me in my sleep until I try it. In this particular instance, I had the idea of using hash browns instead of eggs and making an omelet with fillings and cheese and all that stuff. In my mind it was a surefire 10 dish.

The problem is that I think I over-hyped the dish in my own mind. I was pretty convinced it was going to be the best thing I had ever eaten in my life. And it was probably only like Top 50.

Still worth making!

The thing about this dish is that it’s just fun to make. I was literally laughing while making it because it was just so ridiculous.

Helpful Equipment

Directions

1) Shred potatoes and press them onto a few paper towels to get out a lot of the water.

2) Dice the veggies and grate the cheese just so you’re ready to go.

3) Cook the veggies in a nonstick pan over medium-high heat with a drizzle of oil until their soft, but not soggy, maybe 2-3 minutes. Give them a pinch of salt and pepper and set aside.

4) Add a smooth layer of hash browns to your pan. You’re goal is to have an even layer of potatoes. Add a drizzle of oil to the potatoes and cook them over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes until the bottom side starts to brown.

5) Slide the whole thing onto a plate and flip the pan over top the plate. Then invert the whole thing. This is just a simple way of fipping the potato over in the pan. If you’re feeling confident you can try flipping it in the air.

6) Once your potato is flipped, add the fillings and cheese to one side of the omelet and fold over the hash browns, forming a half-circle. Cook on each side (use a spatula to flip at this point) for about 3-4 minutes until the potatoes are golden brown and the cheese is melted.

7) Serve immediately with hot sauce, ketchup, and chopped parsley.

The Potatoes

The key to really good hash browns is getting as much liquid from the potatoes as you can. There’s a shocking amount of water in a potato and if you don’t dry out the hash before cooking it, you’ll just have steamed potato shreds instead of crispy golden hash browns.

So the key is to shred them onto a few paper towels and press out some of the liquid.

The paper towel is actually key.

The Fillings

Of course, like any omelet you can fill this guy with anything that you want really.

I usually just use some leftovers for omelets which in this case was a few mushrooms and a red pepper. Cheese and hot sauce are pretty much essential for an omelet in my opinion.

Not pictured below is 1/4 of a red onion that I also added to the party.

Leftovers.

In a large non-stick skillet, add the diced veggies and a drizzle of oil and cook over medium-high heat until soft, but not soggy.

Just a few minutes should do the trick.

Don’t overcook these guys.

Making the omelet

This is when it kind of got a little challenging. I wasn’t exactly sure how this would work, but here’s was my game plan which ended up working fine:

Make a smooth, even layer of hash browns in a nonstick pan with some oil (I used too much oil. Probably a tablespoon will do the trick) and a pinch of salt.

Get this cooking over medium high heat.

This is going to be a big omelet…

After about 5 minutes, the bottom side should be starting to get crispy. You don’t want it to get TOO crispy or you won’t be able to fold the thing.

It’s kind of a judgment call, but about 5 minutes was what I did.

The next step is to gently slide the entire thing out onto a plate. Did I mention that a good nonstick pan is pretty important here?

(Of course, if you’re feeling very confident you can try to just flip this whole thing in the pan, but that kind of skill is a bit above my pay grade.)

So I just slid it.

Slide on a plate.

Then put the pan over the plate and flipped it back in.

Easy!

Some faith required for this step.

Stuffing this thing

So now that we’ve flipped it, we need to add all of our awesome fillings to the party.

Just pile them on to one half of the disc.

Again. This is large.

And lots of cheese of course.

Delicious.

Then fold the empty half over the top half.

This is a monster of an omelet.

The big fold.

Cook this thing for about 3-4 minutes per side. This means you’ll need to flip it again, but it’s a lot easier to flip when it’s folded and the melted cheese helps hold everything together. I just used a spatula for the second flipping.

Serve this as soon as possible with some chopped parsley if you want to get fancy.

Most people would maybe serve this with ketchup, but I really don’t like ketchup so I always choose hot sauce.

Not shabby.

If you think about it, it’s pretty hard to go wrong here. Even if you don’t get the filling/flipping thing perfect, you’re going to end up with hash browns, veggies, and melted cheese. It’s pretty hard to beat that for a hearty breakfast.

I am thinking that maybe a little sausage wouldn’t go amiss as a filling in this. I am with you though, the thought of a hash-brown omlette really does sound delicious. Something like that would probably haunt my dreams too. I have had several recipes haunt my dreams only to leave me dissatisfied in the end, so I am not sure what to think….

Looks absolutely delish the way it is, Nick! I’m also thinking it would be good by adding eggs, ala a fritatta. The eggs could be added after the hash browns are mostly cooked, but before folding…or…add all but the cheese and mix in with the potatoes, then the eggs, and finally top with the cheese and skip the folding.

I can totally relate to the “this recipe is so rediculous! AHAHAHA” kind of feeling, and the having recipes keep me up at night. Both of which are pretty fantastic. I think this would be amazing with a large helping of chili inside with smoked Gouda. I know that’s what I’m going to make as soon as I get home tonight.

This is awesome! There was a great pub in my college town that served these—called them "Potato Crisps." The place was closed due to eminent domain but my friends and I still talk about it. Now I'm definitely doing to try making one at home! Thanks!

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Love Your Leftovers includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert options as well as a wide range of cuisines. Each main dish includes eight to ten creative recipes for leftovers. With chapters on kitchen and pantry basics and Meal Planning 101, as well as a helpful index of vegetarian and thirty-minute meals. This isn’t just a book you might like, it’s the book your kitchen (and family) need.